


Reading the Signals

by Awseomness



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: College AU, F/F, Female Pronouns for Pidge | Katie Holt, Fluff, Friday Night Magic Au, I'm so bad at metaphors I almost don't catch them in my own work!, Love Confession, Magic tips with accidental thematic relevance, Nonverbal miscommunication, Romelle was taught original mtg and is still learning how it's played today, Short, lance is a good friend
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-03-29
Updated: 2019-03-29
Packaged: 2019-12-26 07:03:14
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,459
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18278216
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Awseomness/pseuds/Awseomness
Summary: Allura's been acting weird around Pidge lately, and Pidge is convinced it's because she's done something wrong and Allura hates her now. So, Pidge decides not to go to Lance's draft tonight when she hears Allura's going to be there.





	Reading the Signals

"Yo, Pidge!"

She glanced up from her laptop. Lance was holding a booster box with undisguised joy.

"Draft tonight!" He said. "You in? Fair warning, I'm forcing Izzet."

Of course he was. "Sounds good. Who all's coming?"

Lance set the box on Pidge's table and counted off on his fingers. "Me and Hunk, obviously. Keith said he'd try to make it and if he comes he's bringing Romelle. Shiro's coming and he said he'd ask Curtis. Plus Allura, so you makes eight."

"Allura?" Pidge made an uncertain face. "Mmn."

Lance's face fell slightly. "What's wrong with Allura?"

"I dunno." Pidge glanced away. "I think she hates me."

"What?" Finally, Lance sat down. "Why would you think that?"

"She acts... weird around me. She gets all curt when she has to talk to me, and she avoids eye-contact. Sometimes I'll catch her glaring at me before she looks away." She shrugged. "I don't know what I did, but for right now I'm trying to keep my distance."

Lance's shoulders slumped.

"Sorry, dude." Pidge returned to her laptop. "Mabe next time."

\---

"No, I understand how to draft." Romelle shifted the packs in front of her until the one with the most appealing character on the front was farthest left. "What I don't understand is 'signalling'. How am I supposed to tell what someone else is drafting if I don't know what's in the packs until they come to me?"

"You're probably not going to know the specific cards." Keith said. "But every pack has a fairly even mix of colors. If it's pick 3 and you're passed a pack that has no blue cards, you can be pretty sure someone to your right is in blue. On the other hand, if you're passed a pack with a strong green card that no one took, you can be pretty sure neither of them are in green."

"And that tells me what I should be looking to counter?"

"Mostly it tells you what colors are open." Hunk said. "And if you know what's in a set, and you've figured out what colors the person next to you is in, you can check what rarities have already been taken and get a pretty good idea what they've drafted."

Keith took an oreo from the snacks in the middle of the table and looked serious. "On the other hand, you should also be aware of the signals you're putting out. If you draft white three picks in a row, chances are good the person to your left will figure that out. Sometimes it pays to take a few cards outside the colors you're going for to muddy the signals. And if those cards are ones you know the person to the right's going to want, all the better."

Romelle frowned. "This is more complicated than I thought."

"It's a bit like Poker." Allura chimed in. "You can play the hand or you can play the player. Sometimes, focusing on your own deck is better than trying to be three steps ahead of everyone else."

Keith nodded, motioned in agreement, and ate his oreo.

Romelle's expression hardened into determination. "I'll do my best!"

"Heck yeah!" Hunk high-fived her.

Lance's voice echoed from the front door, "Come on in, guys. We've got snacks and everything."

Down the stairs came Lance, followed by Shiro and Curtis. They arrived to a chorus of "Aaaaay!" from those already gathered in Lance's basement.

"Curtis, excellent!" Romelle scooched slightly to the left and offered the chair to her right. "Please, have a seat."

Hunk chuckled to himself while Curtis, the only person present who had less experience playing modern Magic than Romelle, looked surprised for a second, but took the seat anyway.

"I'm glad you were able to get away from work." Keith said as Shiro took his own seat.

"I'll have to make up some of the paperwork tomorrow morning, but I needed a break anyway." Shiro smiled.

"Okay!" Lance clapped his hands. "Let's get started!"

"Wait, there's only seven of us." Curtis said.

Allura glanced around. "Is Pidge not coming?"

Lance rubbed the back of his neck. "Oh, no. She... she wasn't able to make it."

"Oh." There was a distinct disappointment in Allura's voice that Lance picked up on.

"What's up?" Hunk asked. "Does she have a test or something?"

"Um..." Lance glanced at Hunk, then back to Allura. She was just as interested as Hunk was. "Allura, can I talk to you?"

Allura searched his expression and, finding no clues, stood up. "Sure."

Before heading up the stairs, Lance said, "Don't open anything yet. Hang tight, eat some snacks, talk behind our backs, you know the drill."

"Could I order pizza?" Romelle called after him.

"As long as you guys are paying!" Lance called back. He didn't have a lot left after buying the booster box.

Once upstairs, Allura turned to him. "So, what's going on?"

Lance took a breath. It kind of felt like he was betraying Pidge's trust by telling Allura something he was told in confidance. Still, if Pidge was wrong and Allura did want her here then it was important their friendship stay intact. Plus, it would bring their draft back up to eight people which was a nice side benefit.

"Pidge... didn't want to come tonight because she thinks you hate her."

"What?!"

"She said you've been acting weird around her? Avoiding eye contact, glaring at her."

Allura blanched. "I wasn't- I was-" Her face hardened. "I have to fix this. Do you know where she is?"

"If she hasn't gone home yet, she might still be at the library. They don't close for another hour."

Allura made for the door. "I'll be back soon. Don't fire the draft without us!"

\---

Pidge's concentration was broken by a pair of hands slamming onto the table in front of her. She jumped. There in front of her, looking at her with incredible intensity, was Allura.

"Oh." She said, weakly. "Hey, Allura."

"I don't hate you!" It was emphatic, but Allura kept her voice low enough to not offend the librarians.

"You don't?" It should have been a relief, but Pidge didn't feel relieved. Maybe because Allura was still fixing her in that intense stare. Maybe because Pidge had once seen Allura benchpress two hundred pounds and Pidge weighed considerably less than two hundred pounds.

"Absolutely not! Quite the opposite, in fact."

"Well, that's -wait." Pidge closed her laptop. "The opposite?"

Allura glanced away, then took a seat. "I've actually grown rather fond of you. I admire your cleverness, your determination, your humor. And, over time, that admiration has turned to... a more romantic sort of feeling."

Pidge's anxiety turned to something else. A feeling she wasn't accostomed to and didn't have a name ready for. Her palms were sweating and she wiped them on her shorts under the table.

"I've tried to continue as normal," Allura continued, "though it's been hard. It seems I've sent entirely the wrong signals. I'm sorry if I've made you feel uncomfortable or unwelcome."

"So, the glaring was-"

"I wasn't glaring at you. I'm embarassed to say, but I was staring at you. You- you're very cute, Pidge."

"That's debatable."

"It's really not." Allura shook her head.

"I mean, it's not like I don't think you're attractive too." Pidge wasn't as good with words as Allura was. "You're like, the definition of 'life goals or wife goals' you know?"

Allura did not.

"You're beautiful, and strong, and kind." Pidge continued. "I look up to you. You give me unrealistic expectations for women, myself included, but you're such a good person I can't even hold that against you."

Allura laughed and Pidge felt some of the tension inside of her release. Allura's laugh was beautiful. It always was.

"Well, seeing as we're on the same page here. I propose a date." Allura said, "This saturday, one o'clock. Nothing fancy, we can go shopping or catch a matinee."

"I'd like that."

"But first," Allura took Pidge's hand, "Our friends are waiting for us. You and I have a draft to get to."

\---

Down the stairs came Lance, followed by Allura and Pidge. They arrived to a chorus of "Aaaaay!" from those already gathered in Lance's basement.

"We didn't think you were going to make it, Pidge." Shiro said, lifting a slice of pizza.

"Something came up, but then something more important came up." Pidge shrugged. "We can talk about it later. Right now, we've got a draft to fire."

She moved to take a seat, but Romelle immediately covered the seat to her left and glared a warning at Pidge.

Pidge leaned over to Allura and whispered, "Is Romelle also secretly attracted to me?"

Allura laughed. "I'll tell you about that later."


End file.
